PUBLIC ABSTRACT

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and worldwide, killing over 150,000 people each year in the United States alone, including many veterans of our armed forces. Most lung cancer patients die from their cancer within 3 years; therefore, we desperately need new therapies to treat lung cancer patients effectively. Genome-targeted therapies such as erlotinib and crizotinib have proven effective for specific lung cancer patients whose tumors are driven by specific mutations in their DNA. Powerful new DNA sequencing technologies, discovered by projects such as The Cancer Genome Atlas or TCGA, are now finding many new mutations in lung cancers. The aim of this project is to test which of the new gene mutations in lung cancer have the power to promote cancer-like behavior in experimental cells. Furthermore, we want to test cellular targets to make drugs for cancers that harbor the cancer-promoting mutations. In some cases, there will already be relevant drugs in clinical development, and patients with the appropriate lung cancer mutations could be directed to the appropriate clinical trial. In other cases, our research will lead to research on the development of new drugs.